Verizon have admitted that there are still thousands of customers using the Galaxy Note 7 but that should soon end as Verizon are about to make it impossible to make calls from the phone. All non-emergency calls will be automatically diverted to customer service moving forward.

Verizon had earlier along with other carriers, issued a special Galaxy Note 7 update a few weeks ago that should have crippled the phone and stopped it from being able to recharge. But trust the geeks, they were able to avoid the update thereby foiling the plan, but the odds of them avoiding the new measure seems unlikely.

According to a Verizon spokesperson, “In spite of our best efforts, there are still customers using the recalled phones who have not returned or exchanged their Note 7 to the point of purchase,

“The recalled Note 7s pose a safety risk to our customers and those around them.”

The cause of the fault that made many phones blow up is still unknown, but some reports speculate that Samsung will reveal the cause later this month.

The talk of the Samsung Galaxy S8 has reached fever pitch with an almost daily stream of rumors, reports, leaks and so on.

Even earlier this week there was a leak from a Poland-based gadget tipster who posted an image that may be what the display design for the upcoming Samsung phone and its larger variant will look like.

What we have here seems to be in line with earlier rumors as to how the face of the Samsung Galaxy S8 could look like.

It shows two display shells that are supposed to be for the Galaxy S8 and the larger S8 Plus. Both look like they have curved screens with very little bezel. They also both look much like the smartphone mockup that was used in the recent videos from Samsung’s Display division.

Looking at the many sensor windows on top of both display shells it is suspected that these may be a heavy indicator that the phone could come with features like iris scanning that was included in the aborted Galaxy Note 7.

Of course it goes without saying that without any official confirmation from Samsung, this may well not be what we are to expect, but if it is, then it is quite nice to look at.

The Galaxy S8 according to rumors is set to be launched sometime in April.

According to the tweet, Samsung will be present at MWC, but that the Galaxy S8 will not be unveiled to the general public. Instead, it’s believed that the new model will be shown off to a small selection of media outlets.

Now it is as usual prudent to take this rumor with a pinch of salt as there have been no official announcements regarding the release date for the S8. We'll keep you posted on any new developments on this front.

Samsung have had an interesting 6 months or so and things just keep getting weirder and weirder with reports from the local press indicating that the head of the Korean company could be facing arrest for corruption.Lee Jae-yong, the defacto head of the company is being accused ofElectronics Vice Chairman Lee is suspected of transferring an equivalent of $18.3 million in bribes to a firm run by Choi Soon-sil, impeached President Park Geun-hye’s friend. What they allegedly got in return was the state's support of the controversial merger between Samsung’s two subsidiaries.

According to reports, Choi allegedly used her connections to have the national pension fund support the merger in July 2015. Samsung were said to have made two more donations in the following months hence, becoming Choi’s biggest contributor among local companies. Reports further indicate that Samsung did indeed confirm making contributions to the firm and two foundations run by the president’s confidante but denied they had anything to do with the merger.

A Korean Prosecutor, Park, requested of a Seoul court an arrest warrant for Lee. The court are yet to grant the request, this according to the NY Times.

Lee Jae-Young is the Vice President of Samsung but has been running it as its head ever since his father had a heart attack in 2014.

Samsung more than most companies would have high hopes for 2017 especially as 2016 was a bit rubbish for them.

They plan to do so by launching 2 phones from their Galaxy A range. And while the A range may not be flagship models, they are good mid-range phones that consumers will love.

The Galaxy A5 2017 is the larger of the two, with a 5.2-inch screen, while the A3 2017 is smaller at 4.7 inches. Both are IP68 water and dust resistant, for the first time, and are said to have improved battery life, with the A5 shipping with Samsung's Fast Charging technology built in. This technology was added to the Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge and is designed to give your battery a boost. During tests, a phone will charge to around 50 per cent in less than 30 minutes.

While the A3 has a 2,350mAh battery, the A5's boasts of a 3,000mAh battery. The Galaxy A5 runs on a 1.9GHz octa core processor; the A3 runs on 1.6GHz.

Elsewhere the phones have reversible USB Type-C ports, as seen on the OnePlus 3 and 3T, come with Always on Displays (designed to save battery life by showing notifications without waking up the entire device), and microSD support up to 256GB.

“At Samsung, we are always trying to ensure our customers have the most advanced products on the market,” said DJ Koh, president of mobile communications business, Samsung Electronics. “We integrated our unique approach to design as well as the features Galaxy customers have come to love to provide added performance without compromising on style.”

In terms of the camera quality, the Galaxy A3 has a 13MP camera, with an 8MP on the front while both the front and rear cameras on the A5 are 16MP.

It's unknown when exactly both phones will hit shelves, but the A series might just be what Samsung need to jumpstart their year.

The explosion of the Galaxy Note 7 was one of the biggest news stories of 2016 as Samsung took a major hit in the market after the snafu.

The Korean company have now said that they are ready to release the findings of their investigation into what caused some of its Galaxy Note 7 smartphones to catch fire.

According to the JoongAng Ilbo, the Samsung CEO made this announcement on Monday.

Samsung had earlier said that it was examining all aspects of the phone, suggesting there may be a combination of factors that contributed to the monumental failure that was the Galaxy Note 7.

The loss was huge as Samsung lost over a $1bn over the course of three quarters and it has been suggested that finding the root cause is imperative not only so as to prevent it from happening again, but also to bring closure in general.

Samsung still has a lot to do if it wants to completely clean up the mess caused by the Note 7 as it is believed that there are still a huge number of illegal Note 7s still in use all over the world.

2017 is coming and with will come it's own fair share of amazing gadgets and high end flagship phones.

Another reason why next year is so special is that it is also supposed to usher in a new generation of processors, which in turn is supposed to make for faster, more powerful phones.

There's a downer here though and that is the results of the first leaked benchmark for the next-generation Qualcomm Snapdragon 835. It is troubling as the implications are that Samsung's Galaxy S8 might not even be as powerful as this year’s iPhone 7 and if next year's Samsung phone can't compete with this year's Apple, what hope does it have for next year?

This is not to say that Samsung have always had an edge over Apple or anything as history has shown us that usually Apple phones do better in real-world performance tests.

While we already covered the AnTuTu benchmark, another one from Geekbench shows that the iPhone 7 is king and processes faster than any Android phone in existence at the moment.

Next year’s Android chips will be built on 10nm process technology and under normal circumstances you'd hope this means that they should be able to outperform the older A10 Fusion chip in the iPhone 7. Well, it seems you'd be wrong, just see below.

According to Phone Arena, a leaked Geekbench test of the Snapdragon 835 that’s going into the Galaxy S8 shows a single-core score of 1844 and a multi-core score of 5426. That might seem impressive, but that’s still not as impressive as the iPhone 7, which has an average score of around 3300 in single-core and about 5400 in multicore tests.

Worse still, the purported single-core Snapdragon 835 score is actually doable by some current Android devices. That’s a bit concerning and could indicate that Qualcomm and Samsung still have a long way to go until they catch Apple.

Now we can't be sure these are the real tests and even if they are, it is also possible that the Snapdragon 835 is incomplete. But if it is real, then one can genuinely say Samsung might have to mind the gap.

Samsung and Apple are probably going to go down as one of the greatest rivalries ever with both companies habitually improving or mimicking each other in terms of innovations.

It seems that we have another one with the Airpods. Apple released the AirPods, complete with a proprietary W1 chip that lets them instantly connect to an iPhone or iPad and now fresh rumours are suggesting Samsung will produce its own pair of wireless in-ear headphones. It's not clear if they will be bundled with the phone, or sold separately.

The S8 (one of the most anticipated things of 2017) will like the iPhone 7 reportedly get rid of the 3.5mm headphone jack, and use instead a USB Type-C for audio.

It is believed that the USB Type-C audio allows for higher quality audio to be passed through a wired connection. But because it will use USB C, you won't be able to connect your current headphones, so you'll either have to get a pair that will use the bespoke connection, or get a wireless Bluetooth pair.

It is also rumoured that the new earphones will use Harman audio technology following Samsung's acquisition earlier this year for $8 billion, but we don't know this for sure.

Other features, such as one to rival Apple's W1 chip, haven't been confirmed either, so we'll just have to wait and see.

So with the Samsung S8 coming out next year, it's only natural that rumours of what it will look like and what is under the hood will surface and now is no exception.

According to online reports, some more details about the Galaxy S8’s Exynos 8895 processor have surfaced out of China today.

According to the report, two variants of the Galaxy S8 Exynos chip will be produced, the Exynos 8895M and Exynos 8895V. The two are said to be manufactured on Samsung’s 10nm FinFET technology. They are said to use a combination of four Exynos M2 CPU cores clocked at 2.5 GHz or 2.3 GHz based on the variant and four Cortex A53 CPU cores clocked at 1.7 GHz.

The report also claimed that Samsung is going to use ARM’s latest Mali-G71 graphics processor with this chipset. The Exynos 8895M is said to feature a 20-core GPU while the 8895V may feature an 18-core GPU. Both are said to be compatible with UFS 2.1 storage, Cat.16 LTE modem, and LP-DDR4x RAM.

None of all that was said above has been confirmed by Samsung, so it's advisable to take it all with a tablespoon (or bag) of salt. We await Samsung to confirm and deny these new reports.

Samsung have already announced various measures to end the Galaxy S7 using various means even just recently announcing in the UK that phones won't be able to charge higher than 35% in a bid to discourage people from using the phone.

The move to kill the battery in the remaining active Galaxy Note 7 smartphones in the US has finally begun with T-Mobile spearheading the charge and being the first of the four major carriers to begin rolling out the battery shutdown update for the recalled phone.

T-Mobile’s support page for the Note 7 states that the update’s version number will be N930TUVU2APL2. The changelog says that the update will offer an on-screen reminder to owners of the phone about the recall order, along with what steps they should take to send back the Note 7. Once the update is installed, the changelog says it will “prevent the charge ability of the device.”

Following T-Mobile's move, AT&T and Verizon are expected to be the next to join in the initiative and it is believed they will roll out the same update to its Note 7 phones from January 5.

According to Samsung, 93 percent of Note 7 devices in the US have already been turned in following the recall order, the 7% is all that's left to conquer.

Ever since the scandal that surrounded the Samsung Galaxy Note 7, the company has been trying to get people to return their units and while at least 90% of people have complied there are still pockets of people who have refused to let go, risking danger just so they can enjoy their Samsung phones.

Already Samsung has made the phone severely limited in Canada and have rendered it almost unusable in the USA and now the South Korean company have set their eyes on the BBC.

According to online sources, from the 15th of December, Galaxy Note7s in the United Kingdom will begin to receive an update that will limit prevent owners from charging them above 30%. That's a huge hit as the Note7 and its 3500mAh battery allowed for solid battery life, but 70% shaved off means it's barely more than 1000mAh. That's even less than the original iPhone's battery's capacity.

Whether this will translate to the rest of Europe is unknown as this information was only made available on their UK page. It is quite likely that it will happen though as Samsung continues to look for ways to discourage people from using the Galaxy Note 7.

The demise of the Samsung Galaxy Note 7 has captured the imagination of people for the 2nd half of 2016 and naturally theories were put forward, some reasonable, others...not.Samsung originally blamed a battery cell issue in cells from one supplier, however the second recall and subsequent cancellation of the phone would seem to discount that.It seems though that a concrete reason might have been espoused as a report from engineering firm Instrumental claims to have solved the mystery. According to the firm's CEO the cause of the explosion is actually quite simple-- the batteries were too large.In her report, Anna Shedletsky concludes that there wasn't enough space around the battery to allow for various manufacturing tolerances, and the slight expansion of the battery through use.She said

"What's interesting is that there is evidence in the design of an intellectual tension between safety and pushing the boundaries. Samsung engineers designed out all of the margin in the thickness of the battery, which is the direction where you get the most capacity gain for each unit of volume.

"But, the battery also sits within a CNC-machined pocket -- a costly choice likely made to protect it from being poked by other internal components. Looking at the design, Samsung engineers were clearly trying to balance the risk of a super-aggressive manufacturing process to maximize capacity, while attempting to protect it internally."

High-res images posted by Instrumental show less than 0.1mm between that "machined pocket" and the top of the battery. Other dimensions are similarly constrained.

Doubts arise when you consider that the sample size for this report is just one unit but the report is quite compelling in its argument.Interestingly, Shedletsky says that even if the Note 7 hadn't suffered an early demise, the shortage of space around the battery would have eventually caused the phones to break apart through battery swelling.It's speculated that Samsung will look at this report and probably think twice about battery issues when they release the Note 8 next year.

The story of the Galaxy Note 7 is no news to anyone ever since it became a WMD. The battery issues was the downfall of the Note 7.

So with the Note 7 dethroned, what then is the best phablet? Well, it seems the crown falls to the Galaxy Note 5.

According to SamMobile, It seems Samsung is trying to improve the Note 5 by imputing Galaxy Note 7 software to the Galaxy Note 5 in Korea.

The Galaxy S7 is awesome, but it lacks a built-in stylus, which is one feature some fans of the Note series appreciate.

Photo Crd: Android Central

Limited to South Korea for the time being, the Grace UX update will bring to the Galaxy Note 5 some of the features found on the Galaxy Note 7. Sadly, this is still a Marshmallow-based update for the old phablet, but that shouldn’t make it any less exciting.

Features like Wide Selfie, Ultra Power Saving Mode, Smart Manager, Blue Light Filter, and Game Tools are included in this new Grace UX update.

All this is all well and good but what people want to know is whether these improvements will be available to user outside Korea and this is at the moment not clear. Although it's expected that it will be, users will still have to wait for a proper Android 7.0 Nougat update for the phablet, though.

It seems that while Samsung might have the capacity, the others might have a bit of trouble with reports indicating that Sharp would need to spend more than $5 billion to develop the technology and capacity to supply OLED screens to Apple.

"We don't know whether Apple's OLED iPhones will be a hit, but if Apple doesn't walk down this path and transform itself, there will be no innovation. It is a crisis but it is also an opportunity," Sharp chief executive Tai Jeng-wu said last month.

iPhone sales have suffered something of a dip in recent times and there is pressure mounting on the company to produce a phone that gets them back on top of things.

The iPhone 8 is supposed to be that product and it is rumoured that it will feature glass casing, wireless charging, and a new edge-to-edge screen design, in addition to the latest chips and technologies.

"iPhone 8 design didn't sound 100% locked down but we believe the move is to a bezel-less design with screen sizes getting larger and curved edges in the original envelope," writes Barclays

10 prototypes are being tested and it's possible that the OLED screen might not see the light of day and it might be a case of Apple going with what is available and what can be supplied by their Asian partners.

Samsung has been in the doldrums lately but look set to make a stunning comeback. Rumors abound about a new, glossy black Samsung Galaxy S7coming soon.

The story first appeared in the Korea Herald, who cited unnamed industry sources, and now, newly-released images on Chinese site Weibo seem to confirm that report. The new S7 phone color is expected to be available in December, in time for the winter holiday shopping season.It is believed that the new color appears to be an attempt to nudge up the company's smartphone sales after the disaster that was the S7 and also Apple's release of the popular glossy Jet Black iPhone 7.Will a simple change in color repair Samsung's reputation? That's unlikely, but it's better than nothing.

Also there's the problem of smudging which has been a problem with Apple's shiny black phone along with how easy it is to see scratches compared to other colors.

It is believed that the shiny black Samsung will be safe, but it remains to be seen.

Samsung recently made their biggest acquisition ever shelling out a whopping $8 billion to get auto manufacturers Harman International Industries.

Naturally this led to questions as to whether Samsung were going into the car manufacturing business seeing as there had been hints that perhaps the South Korean firm were interested in it.

But it seems Samsung might not be thinking about this at all as a recent Forbes interview with Samsung Electronics President and Chief Strategy Officer Young Sohn revealed that Samsung has no such plans.

Young Sohn was quick to mention that he is “not an auto guy” in the interview, but more of a “mobile, semiconductor and communications person.”

He had this to say though “We are envisioning what happens in the future as similar to the smartphone experience.” The company aims to offer “the convenience and technology that can bring more relevant information to one’s driving experience” and ultimately Samsung could also work on a fully autonomous solution.

So why did Samsung purchase Harman? Well according to Sohn the company has been looking at many options in regards to how to approach the market, and realized that it takes a long time to build a team and relationships in the automotive industry, which works in “very long business cycles”. However, Harman brings “tremendous customer relationship” Samsung doesn’t have in the industry; Harman has “a proven management team that has delivered over time and we like that consistent performance” and last but not least, Harman also “invested heavily in the areas of connected cloud, telematics, over-the-air updates and security.”

This said, according to Sohn Samsung “don’t really want to build cars.” Even though the company aims to become a bigger name in the car business, Sohn says that Samsung is “not interested in the more traditional area of business or technology, like power trains or seats or bodies” because Samsung can’t add value to these segments.

What Samsung can do is add value is “in areas of transportation where we support an autonomous connected experience, electrification and better user experiences.” In other words, Samsung wants to help pushing cars into a future where smart vehicles are the norm, rather than building its own cars from the ground up, and the recent acquisitions are a way for the company to increase its influence and improve relationships in the automotive industry.

So Samsung may be getting into the auto industry with their purchase of Harman, but probably not in the sense we initially imagined.

Telecommunications giant Samsung have just made their biggest acquisition yet, buying Harman International Industries, an auto parts supplier best known by consumers for its Harman Kardon audio division.

The $8 billion, all-cash deal is somewhat surprising taking into consideration that the company generally develops tech in-house. It instantly makes Samsung a much bigger player in the connected and autonomous vehicle industry dominated by Google, Apple and automakers like Tesla, GM and Volvo.

According to Harman CEO Dinesh Paliwal, Samsung's displays, connectivity and processing tech is a good fit for Harman. He said, "Samsung is an ideal partner for Harman and this transaction will provide tremendous benefits to our automotive customers,"

Samsung's Oh-Hyun Kwon added that Harman has an "unmatched automotive order pipeline" and a "strong foundation for Samsung to grow our automotive platform."

Before this mega-deal, Samsung's biggest acquisition was a deal to buy AST for $840 million back in the '90s.

Bloomberg via Getty Images

Samsung paid a 28 percent premium over Harman's current share price, but Harman has a projected order backlog of $24 billion, according to theWSJ. While the California-based firm is known for audio products like Harman Kardon, JBL and dbx, about two-thirds of its sales come from the auto industry. The company builds infotainment, connected safety, security and telematics devices and services used in over 30 million vehicles built by BMW, Toyota, Volkswagen and other automakers.

According to reports, Samsung are trying to break into the automotive market and it seems that rather than doing things in-house they have decided to acquire instead.

Samsung has cash reserves of around $70 billion and "expects to use cash on hand to fund the transaction." The deal is set to be finalized next year.

While the news that Samsung might be coming out with a foldable TV is no real surprise, the fact that they have applied for a patent sure is.

According to the tech giants, they have filed a patent with the Korean Intellectual Property Office (KIPO) and United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for the foldable TV.

How Samsung plans to implement the TV is unclear, but analysts expect it to improve user convenience as you’ll be able to roll up TVs when they’re not in use. They could also be carried about when travelling so if the TV is large, you can just roll it up and carry it along.

It's possible this may never see the light of day. Samsung reserves the rights to a lot of designs, names and components on a daily basis and only a small portion of them ever make their way onto the market.

Owners if the Galaxy S7 or S7 edge are set to be the first to be able to give their android device an Android Nougat refresh.

This is due to Samsung's Galaxy Beta Program which is now available for S7 users, but only in the US, the UK and the company's home country of Korea, though it will soon launch in China, as well.

To do this, users will first have to apply for the privilege to be one of the first by making a Samsung account and then downloading the Galaxy Beta Program or the Samsung Members app. Since the Korean conglomerate introduced the program for Android Marshmallow last year, users might already have either app. In case you do get early access to Nougat, you'll obviously be able to preview Samsung's updated user interface and provide feedback on anything you think needs fixing.

If you're one of the lucky people who got a limited edition S7 edge Olympic Games or an S7 edge Injustice Edition, then you really wouldn't be that lucky as this means you can't participate in the beta.

Moreso users are only eligible in the UK if they have an unlocked device. In the US, on the other hand, users will have to be Sprint, T-Mobile or a Verizon subscribers.